1. Field of the Disclosure
The present subject matter relates to tags, for example those used in merchandising or retailing applications. More particularly, the present subject matter relates to antennae assemblies employing wireless communication approaches such as radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology useful in the context of consumer goods production, processing and merchandising, as well providing services to the end user of the item by functioning as a security and/or identification tag in the form of an identification label, patch, decorative component or the like and especially suitable for clothing and which may be used for inventory, security, compliance and tracking.
2. Description of Related Art
Devices incorporating wireless communication approaches including RFID technology are widely used for a variety of different applications, including inventory control, tracking, guard and security systems as well as providing access to services such as access control and loyalty based rewards. Such systems are well known in the retail industry, including in connection with clothing inventory control and security from theft and other losses.
Associating RFID devices with clothing for example worn by humans, the human can cause a reduction in performance of the RFID device enabling the RFID device to only be read in a near field range as opposed to a longer range which of several meters which may be customary with RFID devices that are not interfered with.
RFID devices may have a variety of integrated components, among them a RFID chip containing data such as an identification code for the type of product and even for the exact piece of goods associated with a unique identification code. Other components include an antenna electrically connected to the RFID chip, which is responsible for transmitting signals to and/or receiving signals from another RFID device, for example, a RFID reader system.
In one example, a RFID reader is associated with a point-of-sale location or check-out counter of a retail facility and detects the chip in a tag associated with a particular items such as consumer goods, which can include the register price of that item as well as other details. In another example, an RFID-readable tag is attached to a piece of merchandise or a consumer product in a retail facility, which tags are scanned using an RFID reader to keep proper count of the product inventory and/or to be used as a security measure functioning as a so-called guard tag.
Antennas of this type include dipole form antennas such as those illustrated in FIG. 2 wherein an RFID chip or strap 20 is in electronic communication with a dipole antenna 21 having radiating elements 22, 23 on either side of the chip 20. Each radiating element is configured to facilitate antenna performance.
In some circumstances, the antenna component takes the form of a hybrid loop-slot antenna or slot-loop hybrid antenna, at times referred to as a “sloop” antenna, as shown in FIG. 1. A variation is a hybrid loop-aperture antenna. Configurations of these types of hybrid or sloop antennas are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,298,343 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,072,334, incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. It will be appreciated that the slot configurations shown therein may be used as aperture configurations for a conductive sheet.